NARIS­SA FRAS­ER

Scores of peo­ple flocked to the Guapo Recre­ation­al Ground on Fri­day night for a taste of the gayelle as the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) brought stick­fight­ing to the com­mu­ni­ty.

Sev­er­al skilled bois men from across the coun­try put on an en­ter­tain­ing dis­play of the sa­cred art­form, com­ple­ment­ed by the voice of vet­er­an chantuelle King An­tho­ny Byanille and the rhythms of en­er­getic drum­mers.

Some com­peti­tors en­dured bro­ken fin­gers, sharp blows to the stom­ach, swollen arms and, of course, “buss heads.”

“This is what we come to see!” some shout­ed from the au­di­ence.

The crowd cheered and gasped at the blood­shed, with the com­peti­tors’ bois, at times, fly­ing far out of the gayelle.

Fa­mil­iar names such as O’Neil Odle, Randy “Man­i­cou” Byanille, Daniel Bar­clay, Ains­ley Al­cia, and even reign­ing King of the Rock Sel­wyn John all vied for the crown.

In the end, it was John who emerged vic­to­ri­ous af­ter burst­ing his op­po­nent’s head in mere sec­onds. Some couldn’t be­lieve how quick­ly it hap­pened as the ring­lead­ers ges­tured to in­di­cate the bat­tle was over.

So for those who weren’t in­ter­est­ed in the pre-Bor­ough Day par­ties in the heart of Point Fortin, this tra­di­tion­al mas­ter­class was a wel­come al­ter­na­tive.

Many praised the NCC for “bring­ing back the cul­ture” to the com­mu­ni­ty and cre­at­ing uni­ty.